10th June 2013 Washington DC, USA
I participated in my first LGBT Pride when I was about 22. I’d just come out, and I stood nervously on a London street with my friend, watching bright and colourful Pride floats filled with people pass. I gazed shyly at those participating, admiring how they were so comfortable and proud about who they were. I […]
15th February 2013 Washington DC, USA
Last year I bemoaned the lack of romance bought by spending Valentine’s Day evening with the otherwise charming British Government’s Chief Scientist, Sir John Beddington. (Of course in reality I secretly enjoyed it. Though that’s not something I admit to Layla.) But this year, Layla and I agreed we would determinedly avoid any event connected […]
22nd January 2013 Washington DC, USA
Inauguration Day is a four-yearly highlight of the Washington calendar – and indeed, the calendar of most US citizens. It is the day when the newly elected president is sworn in for the next four years. Full of pomp and circumstance, bugles, marching bands, songs, prayers, and lots of US flags, “What are you doing […]
9th November 2012 Washington DC, USA
For me, election campaigning has been a constant element of life in the US. The entire year I have been lived here has involved the most prolonged, sustained, energetic excitement about choosing a country’s leader that I could have imagined. From the first day we arrived, the question of who was to be the next […]
5th November 2012 Washington DC, USA
Last weekend while sitting in the TEDx MidAtlantic conference, I found myself feeling edgy. I kept compulsively checking my e-mails and Twitter feed for mentions of “Sandy”. After almost a year in Washington DC, hurricane Sandy was my first experience of extreme weather in the US. Which is why, as photographs of empty DC grocery […]
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12th October 2012 Washington DC, USA
At the last UK election, we borrowed from a US campaign staple and televised debates between the candidates for Prime Minister for the first time. And they generated a good amount of interest and engagement. But the excitement absolutely pales in comparison to what I experienced across the US following the first Obama/Romney Presidential debate […]
9th August 2012 Washington DC, USA
As a Londoner, I have to admit that sometimes Londoners can be cynical. As we left for the US last November, we left our friends muttering about anticipated congestion and transport angst and plans to let out their houses to Olympic-crazed tourists and spend the month in Florida. However, from the moment the fabulous opening […]
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24th July 2012 Washington DC, USA
Many children dream of being an astronaut – but it wasn’t til I had qualified as a lawyer and worked for some years as a civil servant that the realisation hit me. It happened during my honeymoon, at New York’s Natural History Museum monthly SciCafe. Astrophysicist and Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson delivered an […]
29th June 2012 Washington DC, USA
Sometimes you don’t know you have an addiction until the thing you’re addicted to is suddenly snatched from you. This is what happened to me on moving to the US seven months ago, and finding myself embroiled in a lengthy procedure to get an American smartphone contract. My realisation happened insidiously. Getting ridiculously lost somewhere […]
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25th June 2012 Washington DC, USA
In my last job, colleagues – even my lovely former boss, the now famous Lord Justice Leveson would occasionally raise an eyebrow as I arrived with hair askew and rosy cheeks from cycling between meetings. Alas in DC, working at the top of a really fairly significant hill, I’ve reluctantly relinquished my addiction to the […]
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